Cymbeline (18 page)
Authors: William Shakespeare
To Pisanio
We’ll
slip you for a season
, but our
jealousy
25
FIRST LORD
So please your majesty,
The Roman legions, all from Gallia drawn,
Are landed on your coast with a supply
Of Roman
gentlemen
30
by the senate sent.
CYMBELINE
Now for
31
the counsel of my son and queen!
FIRST LORD
Good my liege,
Your preparation can
affront
34
no less
Than what you hear of.
Come more
35
, for more you’re ready:
The want is but
36
to put those powers in motion
That long to move.
CYMBELINE
I thank you: let’s withdraw
And meet the time as it seeks us. We fear not
What can from Italy
annoy
40
us, but
We grieve at
chances
41
here. Away.
Exeunt
[
all but Pisanio
]
PISANIO
I heard
no letter
42
from my master since
I wrote him Innogen was slain. ’Tis strange:
Nor hear I from my mistress, who did promise
To yield me often tidings. Neither know I
What
is betid
46
to Cloten, but remain
Perplexed in all. The heavens still must work.
Wherein I am false I am honest: not true, to be true.
These present wars shall
find
49
I love my country,
Even to the note o’th’king
, or I’ll
fall
50
in them.
All other doubts, by time let them be cleared:
Exit
running scene 16
Enter Belarius, Guiderius and Arviragus
GUIDERIUS
The
noise
1
is round about us.
BELARIUS
Let us from it.
ARVIRAGUS
What pleasure, sir, find we in life, to
lock it
3
From action and adventure?
GUIDERIUS
Nay, what hope
Have we in hiding us?
This way
6
the Romans
Must
or for
Britons slay us or
receive us
7
For barbarous and unnatural revolts
During their use, and slay us after.
BELARIUS
Sons,
We’ll higher to the mountains, there
secure us.
11
To the king’s party there’s no going: newness
Of Cloten’s death — we being
not known, not
mustered
13
Among the bands — may
drive us to a render
14
Where we have lived, and so
extort from’s
15
that
Which we have done, whose
answer
16
would be death
Drawn on with
17
torture.
GUIDERIUS
This is, sir, a doubt
In such a time nothing becoming you,
Nor satisfying us.
ARVIRAGUS
It is not likely
That when they hear the Roman horses neigh,
Behold their
quartered fires
23
, have both their eyes
And ears so
cloyed importantly
24
as now,
That they will waste their time
upon our note
25
,
To know from whence we are.
BELARIUS
O, I am known
Of
28
many in the army: many years,
Though Cloten
then
but young, you see, not
wore
29
him
From my
remembrance.
30
And besides, the king
Hath not deserved my service nor your loves,
Who find in my exile the
want of breeding
32
,
The
certainty
of this hard life,
aye hopeless
33
To have the
courtesy
your
cradle
34
promised,
But to be
still
hot summer’s
tanlings
35
and
GUIDERIUS
Than be so,
Better to cease to be. Pray, sir, to th’army:
I and my brother are not known; yourself
So
out of thought
, and
thereto so o’ergrown
40
,
Cannot be
questioned.
41
ARVIRAGUS
By this sun that shines,
I’ll thither: what
thing is’t
43
that I never
Did see man die, scarce ever looked on blood
But that of coward hares,
hot
goats and
venison!
45
Never bestrid a horse, save one that had
A rider like myself, who ne’er wore
rowel
47
Nor
iron
48
on his heel! I am ashamed
To look upon the holy sun, to have
The benefit of his blest beams, remaining
So long a poor unknown.
GUIDERIUS
By heavens, I’ll go:
If you will bless me, sir, and give me leave,
I’ll take the better
care
54
: but if you will not,
The
hazard therefore due
55
fall on me by
The hands of Romans.
ARVIRAGUS
So say I, amen.
BELARIUS
No reason I, since of your lives you set
So slight a valuation, should reserve
My
cracked
60
one to more care. Have with you, boys!
If in your
country
61
wars you chance to die,
That is my bed too, lads, and there I’ll lie.
Aside
Lead, lead.— The time seems long,
their blood thinks
63
scorn
Till it fly out and show them princes born.
Exeunt
running scene 17
Enter Posthumus alone
With a bloody handkerchief
POSTHUMUS
Yea,
bloody cloth
1
, I’ll keep thee: for I wished
Thou shouldst be coloured thus. You married ones,
If each of you should take this
course
3
, how many
Must murder wives much better than themselves
For
wrying
5
but a little? O Pisanio,
Every good servant
does not
6
all commands:
No bond but
7
to do just ones. Gods, if you
Should have
8
ta’en vengeance on my faults, I never
Had lived to
put on this
9
: so had you saved
The noble Innogen to
repent
10
, and struck
Me, wretch, more
worth
11
your vengeance. But alack,
You snatch some hence for little faults; that’s love,
To have them
fall
13
no more: you some permit
To
second
ills with ills, each
elder
14
worse,
And
make them dread it
, to the doer’s
thrift.
15
But Innogen is your own: do your best wills,
And make me blest to obey. I am brought hither
Among th’Italian gentry, and to fight
Against my lady’s kingdom: ’tis enough
That, Britain, I have killed thy mistress: peace,
I’ll give no wound to thee. Therefore, good heavens,
Hear patiently my purpose: I’ll disrobe me
Of these Italian
weeds
and
suit
23
myself
As does a Briton peasant: so I’ll fight
Against the
part
25
I come with: so I’ll die
For thee, O Innogen, even for whom my life
Is every breath a death: and thus, unknown,
Pitied
28
nor hated, to the face of peril
Myself I’ll dedicate. Let me make men know
More valour in me than my
habits
30
show.
Gods, put the strength o’th’Leonati in me!
To shame the
guise
32
o’th’world, I will begin
The fashion,
less without and more within.
33
Exit
running scene 18
Enter Lucius, Iachimo and the Roman army at one door: and the Briton
army at another: Leonatus Posthumus following like a poor soldier
.
They march over and go out. Then enter again, in skirmish, Iachimo
and Posthumus: he vanquisheth and disarmeth Iachimo, and then
leaves him
IACHIMO
The heaviness and guilt within my
bosom
1
Takes
off
my manhood: I have
belied
2
a lady,
The princess of this country, and the air
on’t
3
Revengingly enfeebles me;
or could
this
carl
4
,
A
very drudge of nature’s
5
, have subdued me
In my
profession?
6
Knighthoods and honours, borne
As I wear mine, are titles
but of scorn.
7
If that thy gentry, Britain,
go before
8
This lout as he exceeds our lords, the
odds
9
Is that we scarce are men and you are gods.
Exit
The battle continues, the Britons fly, Cymbeline is taken: then enter, to his rescue, Belarius, Guiderius and Arviragus
BELARIUS
Stand, stand, we have th’advantage of the ground.
The lane is guarded: nothing
routs
12
us but
The villainy of our fears.
GUIDERIUS
and
ARVIRAGUS
Stand, stand and fight.
Enter Posthumus and
seconds
the Britons. They rescue Cymbeline, and exeunt. Then enter Lucius, Iachimo and Innogen
LUCIUS
Away, boy, from the troops, and save thyself:
For friends kill friends, and the disorder’s such
As
war were
hoodwinked.
17
IACHIMO
’Tis their fresh supplies.
LUCIUS
It is a day turned strangely:
or betimes
19
Let’s reinforce, or fly.
Exeunt
running scene 18 continues
Enter Posthumus and a Briton Lord
LORD
Cam’st thou from where they made the stand?
POSTHUMUS
I did.
Though you, it seems, come from the
fliers.
3
LORD
I did.
POSTHUMUS
No blame be to you, sir, for all was lost,
But
6
that the heavens fought: the king himself
Of his
wings
7
destitute, the army broken,
And
but
8
the backs of Britons seen, all flying
Through a
strait
lane: the enemy
full-hearted
9
,
Lolling the tongue
10
with slaught’ring, having work
More plentiful than tools to do’t, struck down
Some
mortally
, some slightly
touched
12
, some falling
Merely through fear, that the strait pass was
dammed
13
With dead men hurt behind, and cowards living
To die with
lengthened
15
shame.
LORD
Where was this lane?
POSTHUMUS
Close by the battle, ditched and walled with turf,
Which gave advantage to an
ancient
18
soldier,
An honest one, I warrant,
who deserved
19
So long a breeding as his white beard came to
In doing this for’s country. Athwart the lane,
He, with two
striplings
— lads more like to
run
22
The country base than to commit such slaughter,
With faces fit for
masks
24
, or rather fairer
Than those for preservation cased, or shame —
Made good
26
the passage, cried to those that fled,
‘Our Britain’s
harts
27
die flying, not our men:
To darkness fleet souls that fly backwards.
28
Stand,
Or we are Romans, and will give you
that
29
Like beasts
which you shun
beastly
30
, and may save
But to look back in
frown
31
: stand, stand.’ These three,
Three thousand confident, in act as many
32
—
For three performers are the
file
33
when all
The rest do nothing — with this word ‘Stand, stand’,
Accommodated
by the place, more
charming
35
With their own nobleness, which could have turned
A
distaff
to a lance,
gilded pale looks
37
;
Part
38
shame, part spirit renewed, that some, turned coward
But by example
39
— O, a sin in war,
Damned in the first beginners! —
’gan to look
40
The way that they did, and to
grin
like
lions
41
Upon the pikes o’th’hunters. Then began
A
stop i’th’chaser
; a
retire
:
anon
43
A rout, confusion thick: forthwith they fly
Chickens the way which
they stooped eagles
:
slaves
45
,
The strides they victors made: and now our cowards,
Like fragments in hard voyages, became
47
The life o’th’need:
having found the back door open
48
Of the unguarded hearts, heavens, how they wound!
Some slain before, some dying
,
some their friends
50
O’erborne i’th’former wave, ten chased by one,
Are now each one the slaughter-man of twenty:
Those that would die
or ere resist
are grown
53
LORD
This was strange chance:
A narrow lane, an old man, and two boys.
POSTHUMUS
Nay, do not
wonder at it
57
: you are made
Rather to wonder at the things you hear
Than to
work any.
Will you rhyme
upon’t
59
,
And
vent
it
for a mock’ry?
60
Here is one:
‘Two boys, an old man —
twice a boy
61
— a lane,
Preserved the Britons, was the Romans’
bane.
62
’
LORD
Nay, be not angry, sir.
POSTHUMUS
’Lack, to what end?
64
Who dares not
stand
65
his foe, I’ll be his friend:
For if he’ll do as he is
made
66
to do,
I know he’ll quickly
fly my friendship
67
too.
You have put me into rhyme.
LORD
Farewell, you’re angry.